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Friday, May 3, 2013

Sepia Saturday: When Smoking Was Cool

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to
share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt shows a happy lady,
cigarette in hand. No doubt she was one
of the cool kids.

I grew up when smoking anywhere and everywhere was widely
accepted. However, smoking was for
adults. When I was in school, most teens
who smoked tried to hide it from their parents.
But the more rebellious ones didn’t care. In fact, they were allowed to smoke out by
the smoke stack behind the school. No
doubt a school administrator with a sense of humor set that policy.

Cradock High School Portsmouth, Virginia
The smokestack is on the left, towering above the school.

Harry Escue on the right.
I believe that is his son Emile, but I'm not sure.

I guess Granddaddy wasn't
worried about ashes falling
on that sweet baby's head.

Granddaddy Slade smoking in an orange grove

The same can be said of Granddaddy Davis and my own
father, but alas, no proof in photos.

By the 1920s, the first wave of women’s liberation brought
women smokers out of the closet. But in
the colleges, women were to be ladies.
At Harrisonburg Teachers College (now James Madison University - Go Dukes!), smoking
was expressly forbidden. In fact, the
no-smoking rule extended even to traveling for the holidays between home and school
although I do not know how that rule was enforced or what the punishment might
have been.

Leta LeVow 1925
Harrisonburg Teachers College

Yet here is my great-aunt Velma Davis Woodring’s college
roommate sitting IN her underwear, ON the dresser IN their dorm room, with a
cigarette. That blurred hand must have
just put out the match. Scandalous!

In fact, she smoked Pall Mall until a few years before
her death in 2005. When and why she quit
is a mystery. She never announced her
intentions to quit. She never complained
about withdrawal or expressed a desire for a cigarette. She just quit. Out of the blue. I wasn’t even aware she was quitting. One day I noticed she wasn’t smoking. I didn’t hear the familiar inhale-exhale when
we spoke on the telephone. She had quit
for good. Daddy was banished to the
garage whenever he needed to smoke.

He was also known to smoke in the car, the very one
Daughter #1 at about age 5 dubbed “a smoker’s car.” She even informed her younger sister, “We’re
going for a ride in a smoker’s car.”

"the smoker's car"

As for me, I’ve never smoked and have never been tempted
to sneak a drag. I remember watching
television the night reporters were all abuzz over the latest research
connecting smoking and cancer. I took those reports seriously.

But that didn’t stop us from enjoying candy cigarettes
and pretending to smoke.

My sister -- too cool for school in those Go-Go boots!
While we loved candy cigarettes, she is holding
a REAL cigarette.

If you’re ready for a cigarette break or just a break in
general, please visit my friends at Sepia Saturday.

54 comments:

It's so strange how customs change. I was brought up with smoking being cool and we all did it. I had a couple of unsuccessful attempts at breaking the habit but have now succeeded totally. It's hard addiction to break.

I took up smoking because it was cool. I am now trying to quit. I love your old pictures of the smokers. My parents didn't smoke of drink so those who did were more glamorous. What a bill of goods we were sold. And, I never dropped ashes on my kids heads. :)

Just like your mother, my mother smoked for years and then one day she didn't. I was about 12ish and I don't remember ever hearing a word about quitting or congratulations when she did. She just stopped.

Somewhere around that time, my dad wanted to be sure that my sister and I never smoked out of curiosity so he sat us down at the kitchen table and forced each of us to smoke a cigarette. That did it for me and I never had any desire to smoke - my sister experimented for awhile but, fortunately, it never stuck for her.

My dad smoked cigars on occasion and I remember him smoking in the car. To this day when I smell a cigar I think of my dad.

I too remember the candy cigarettes. When you mentioned the car I recalled that most houses in our neighborhood reeked of smoke..it was the rule, not the exception. I myself quit one New Years after I heard an American Cancer Society call-in where the callers suffering from laryngeal cancer were all using those voice boxes! Stubbed my cigarette out in the car ashtray and never smoked again. Your mother and her friends on the beach were certainly a trio of beauties!

Today when I go into a house where people smoke, I'm VERY aware of it. However, I don't remember our house smelling bad or the houses of any of my friends and neighbors. Maybe they did but we had always lived in it and didn't notice.

Yes, I kept thinking about MadMen as I was writing this blog post. Remember in Season 1 the doctor was lighting up as he was getting ready to examine Peggy who was seeking birth control. That show really captures the cavalier attitude about smoking.

A very impressive pack of smokers. Its funny how many people in the old photos seem completely unconscious of the cigarette in their hand. Except for the cool ones of course. My grandfather was the chronic smoker. Camels brand which I can still smell in a bad dream.

You're lucky you never started - I can vouch for the difficulty of giving up. After smoking for 19 years, I finally managed to quite in 1999, but it was very, very hard. There were similar smokers' possies at my school, but that certainly wasn't permitted.

When my sister and I sold "the smoker's car" after our dad died, we cleaned up everything but the ashtray -- just totally forgot. We noticed it when we had a buyer but he didn't care because he was a smoker too.

When I was at school and learning to smoke (!) (say 64-69) you could buy packs of 5 cigarettes, but I never saw these for many years now. In the UK now cigarettes are so expensive that when I go to pick up litter in the street I rarely find a 20s packet, they are mostly 10s, but I'm not sure you have 10s in the USA.

Oh yes I had forgotten about those candy cigarettes, do they still have them? I don't think I've seen any. Yes my photos and yours show that folks were not concerned about smoking around babies or anyone. You have quite an array of smokers photos.

Oh my favorite photo, besides your sister in the last one is the teacher Leta, too funny, but oh I can imagine it was just the coolest moment for her! I still love those candy cigarettes I think they are just yummy, and they are the coolest with the red paint on the end for the fire you know! My daughter in law just bought a bunch of them to put in the little bags for her son's 5 year old birthday party and I hope not too many parents were upset by it, these days some parents don't like their children even pretending to smoke! Even though, these youngsters just know them as just yummy candy!

Love the dorm room furniture! Love that photo too!I do remember candy cigarettes and blowing through them so a puff of "smoke" came out. I loved them since my dad smoked but I never, ever smoked...also knew how bad it was...and hated the smell of the smoke.

In high school I worked in a sporting goods store and when I cashiered people would smoke right at the register...I would hold my breath. And in 1984 I worked in a craft store in a big mall and people could smoke in the mall but not in the stores...I was sooo happy when smoking was finally banned in stores and restaurants in CA!

Lucky Strikes went to war and my father joined up. He was a smoker for around 18 years until one day he coughed up blood and said, "That's it." He threw a new carton in the trash and never looked back.

My mother once asked after they were newly wed if she could try it. My dad said sure. He handed her a cigarette, she breathed in, he hit in the back so that she swallowed the smoke. He did it on purpose because he didn't want her smoking. It worked. She never smoked again.

I was like you. Just the candy ones, please. I found some a few years ago at a candy store and sent them to a friend. They made her laugh and go back to her childhood.

alright, so I needed to lit one up before commenting. Great post, for starters!! If the ash of granddaddy's cigarette had fallen on the baby's head and caused any damage, the mentality back then would have been to brush it off and say "it'll grow back"... No trip to the ER!!My grandfather had a spittoon. That was his thing, chewing tobacco and spitting. Disgusting!!! :D~ HUGZ

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My name is Wendy. About twenty years ago, I helped my mother research the Jolletts. Since retiring from teaching, I have expanded my research which I share here. When I’m not looking for my own family, I index for FamilySearch and the Greene County Historical Society.
Welcome to Jollett Etc. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. If you have more information or believe we are related, EMAIL ME at wendymath at cox dot net